Book Review

Product Description:

This sweeping prairie memoir, self-published in Canada in 2007, rapidly garnered both commercial and literary applause. Recounting the author's journey from a Hutterite girlhood to an adolescence of desperate striving to catch up with fashions of the time, the book manages to pack information about Hutterite life into a coming-of-age narrative without slowing it down. Kirkby's family moved away from their Manitoba colony when she was 10 years old, after what she calls a near idyllic childhood in the cradle of a communal society. Once a reader commits the many characters and their relationships to each other to memory, the book becomes as riveting and well-paced as a novel. Kirkby captures the complex cadences of Hutterite life—the bawdy humor and knack for storytelling that stands beside austere ritual, the poverty of personal possession and freedom that exists beside the security of community life—with pitch-perfect writing. She also manages to avoid either vilifying or romanticizing a culture that has been subjected to both. Readers will find themselves hoping that Kirkby follows the popular trend in memoir writing: producing a sequel. (May)

My Thoughts:

Mary Ann Kirkby's I Am Hutterite is the true story of her childhood. She was raised in a small Hutterite community in Canada. At the age of 10, her family left the community and the life she had known. The family's transition into the "English" world was difficult on the entire family.

There was much to enjoy about this book. It was well written. The life of the Hutterites came alive through the eyes of a young girl. The pain of leaving behind extended family and an entire way of life was compelling.

As much pain and hardship as the family went through while adjusting to their new life, much was also gained. The family got to know each other, perhaps for the first time, and relied on each other. Slowly, they began to fit in to the new culture in which they found themselves.

This book was engaging and informative. I did find myself at the end wanting to know more about the author's life!


**This is a review for Thomas Nelson's book review program.**